Businesses that don’t deal with a mouse problem when it’s first spotted can guarantee themselves a visit from a health inspector later on, says a local exterminator.

Tom Shultz, an owner with Edmonton Exterminators Ltd. on Argyll Road, says once the rodents arrive inside a building during the winter, they won’t leave.

And often any mice that move inside a home or a business are often pregnant females that usually have litters of five babies that could be fully grown within five to eight weeks, he said.

“I’ve gone to places, including restaurants, where there are hundreds of mice in there,” said Shultz who adds he’s noticed the problem slowly rise in Edmonton in recent years. “It’s more of a problem in the winter than in the summer.”

Mystique Wendel, a health investigator who closed down a pub near the University of Alberta Tuesday, says businesses that sell food have to do a little more in preventing infestations.

“Mice can climb through holes that are the size of a nickel, so if you have holes, seal them up,” said Wendal.

Doors at a Calgary Superstore yesterday were open around 9:30 a.m. after being shut down for 18 hours by health officials due to a mice infestation.